One of the most common mixtures used in preparing breads, pastries, cookies, and other foods is flour dough, which is generally created by combining flour with eggs, yeast, and/or a liquid such as water or milk. Once prepared, the dough is usually flattened to a desired thickness using a common rolling pin having a cylindrical shape with a handle on each end. To accomplish the flattening of the dough, an individual typically places the rolling pin at the center of the dough and rolls the rolling pin outwardly along the general radii of the dough, while applying a steady downward pressure on the handles. The individual repeats this procedure until the dough is at a desired thickness.
Obtaining a consistent thickness throughout the dough is often difficult with the use of a common rolling pin, especially when the batch of dough covers the majority of the surface on which the dough is being flatted or rolled. An individual often has a difficult time determining the actual thickness of the dough above the working surface. Further, a constant downward pressure must be applied during the flattening of the dough; otherwise (if more pressure is applied on one portion of the dough than on another portion) the thickness of the dough will not be uniform. Accordingly, portions of the dough will not be of the appropriate and desired thickness for use.
To address the difficulty in achieving a uniform thickness of the dough, rolling pins have been modified to use gauge or offset wheels. Generally, the gauge wheels are placed near the ends of the rolling pin near the handles, thereby raising the body of the rolling pin a predetermined distance from the surface on which the dough is placed. Although appropriate for their intended purposes, the addition of gauge wheels to the rolling pin is generally cumbersome and often requires the use of a separate tool, such as a screwdriver or wrench, to add or remove the gauge wheels from the rolling pin. Further, only one set of gauge wheels is generally provided, thereby only allowing the rolling pin to roll or flatten the dough at one predetermined thickness.
What is needed is an adjustable offset rolling pin that can be adjusted to multiple offsets, whereby different predetermined thicknesses of the dough can be achieved by the rolling pin. Further, what is needed is an adjustable offset rolling pin that can be easily, but effectively, adjusted from one offset to another without the use of a separate tool. It is to such a device that the present invention is primarily directed.